In the Chapel Hill Adult Softball league tournament completed last Wednesday at Homestead Park, MSOC Beer Nuts almost missed the party but ended up winning it all.

Top-seeded Sutton’s FDH had already punched their ticket for the final by fending off Jersey Mike’s Subs 10-8 in one semifinal Monday. In the semifinals’ nightcap, the Journeymen were up by one run going into the bottom of the seventh inning against Beer Nuts.

With two men on and one out, a sharp single lined into right field easily scored the first runner, and the third-base coach opted to send the next man on home. The right-fielder made a strong throw to home, where the catcher stepped in front of the plate to snag the ball before spinning around to go for the tag. The base-runner slid under the tag with the game-winning run in a 15-14 decision, called safe despite the Journeymen’s protests.

Wednesday’s final seemed almost anti-climatic by comparison. MSOC Beer Nuts won the championship with a 10-6 victory over Sutton’s and finished the season at 15-4. Sutton’s FDH, which had beaten MSOC (Management Services On Call) Beer Nuts 8-5 in their only meeting of the regular season, ended up 16-3.

"We had a great run to finish out the year, winning 11 of our last 12 games," MSOC Beer Nuts player-coach Dave Backus noted. "We got off to a slow start this year and when a couple of our young guns returned from college is when we really got going."

Two former Chapel Hill High School baseball standouts provided big momentum for the Beers -- Guilford College grad Eric Backus, a four-year letterman for the Quakers, and Furman grad Bill Sanders, who started out his college baseball career at Denison University in Ohio.

"We have a good mix of guys from the ages of 48 to 22," Dave Backus said. "Some have played the game for 30 years, and others just started this year. It really has been fun playing together."

Polewka contributed

to this report.